Richard W Painter - Böcker

In order to be effective, federal ethics law must address sources of systematic corruption rather than simply address motives that individual government employees might have to betray the public trust, such as personal financial holdings or family relationships. Getting the Government America Deserve articulates a general approach to combating systemic corruption as well as some specific proposals for doing so. Federal ethics law is relatively unknown in legal academia and elsewhere outside of Washington, D.C., but it is binding on over one million federal employees. Lobbyists, federal contractors, lawyers and others who interact with the federal government are also deeply interested in federal ethics law and represent a surprisingly large market for a little-studied area of the law. Getting the Government America Deserve analyzes government ethics law from the perspective of an academic critic and that of a lawyer who was the chief White House ethics lawyer for two and a half years. Richard Painter argues that the existing ethics regime is in need of substantial reform since federal ethics laws fail to curtail conduct that undermines the integrity of government, such as political activity by federal employees and their interaction with lobbyists and interest groups. He also contends that in some other areas, such as personal financial conflicts of interest, there is too much complexity in regulatory and reporting requirements, and rules need to be simplified. Painter's solution includes strengthening the enforcement of ethics rules, reforming the lobbying industry, and changing a system of campaign finance that impedes meaningful government ethics reform.

Conduct Unbecoming: The Ethics Crisis at the Supreme Court and How Legitimacy Can be Restored examines the ethics crisis on the Supreme Court, how the justices claim to comply with judicial ethics rules but do not do so, and the collapse in public confidence in the Court that follows. Justices' free travel with billionaires and other undisclosed gifts, failure to recuse from cases involving conflicts of interest, million-dollar book deals, dubious sources of spousal income, and displays of partisanship all undermine the Court's credibility. This book explores the reasons for the Court's ethics problems, including justices' willingness to cover for their colleagues' ethics breaches, the well-financed special interest groups that help justices get nominated and confirmed to the Court, and the relationships that follow the justices thereafter. It also proposes reforms including changes to the confirmation process, more robust disclosure rules for justices and persons trying to influence the Court, and an ethics lawyer and inspector general for the Court. Painter concludes that ethics reform for the Court is urgently necessary, and even more so in an age when political extremists on the right and left are increasingly challenging the authority of the Court and principles of judicial review.

Taking financial risks is an essential part of what banks do, but there's no clear sense of what constitutes responsible risk. Taking legal risks seems to have become part of what banks do as well. Since the financial crisis, Congress has passed copious amounts of legislation aimed at curbing banks' risky behavior. Lawsuits against large banks have cost them billions. Yet bad behavior continues to plague the industry. Why isn't there more change? In Better Bankers, Better Banks, Claire A. Hill and Richard W. Painter look back at the history of banking and show how the current culture of bad behavior-dramatized by the corrupt, cocaine-snorting bankers of The Wolf of Wall Street-came to be. In the early 1980s, banks went from partnerships whose partners had personal liability to corporations whose managers had no such liability and could take risks with other people's money.A major reason bankers remain resistant to change, Hill and Painter argue, is that while banks have been faced with large fines, penalties, and legal fees-which have exceeded one hundred billion dollars since the onset of the crisis-the banks (which really means the banks'shareholders) have paid them, not the bankers themselves. The problem also extends well beyond the pursuit of profit to the issue of how success is defined within the banking industry, where highly paid bankers clamor for status and clients may regard as inevitable bankers who prioritize their own self-interest. While many solutions have been proposed, Hill and Painter show that a successful transformation of banker behavior must begin with the bankers themselves. Bankers must be personally liable from their own assets for some portion of the bank's losses from excessive risk-taking and illegal behavior. This would instill a culture that discourages such behavior and in turn influence the sorts of behavior society celebrates or condemns. Despite many sensible proposals seeking to reign in excessive risk-taking, the continuing trajectory of scandals suggests that we're far from ready to avert the next crisis.Better Bankers, Better Banks is a refreshing call for bankers to return to the idea that theirs is a noble profession.

This new edition of the successful handbook Employment Rights is fully updated and revised to include new material on all recent employment law. Employment Rights is a well-established text and reference point on all aspects of labour law – in particular those outside the legal profession. Coverage is comprehensive and includes recruitment and selection; contracts (and changes to them); wages; discrimination; unfair dismissal and redundancy; health and safety; trade union rights; and work-related benefits.This new edition has been expanded to include coverage of developments such as the Employment Act 2002, Tax Credits Act 2002, EC Employment, Social Policy, the European Convention of Human Rights; and reform of the Disability Discrimination Act 1995 and the Industrial Tribunals Act 1996.

In The U.S. Presidency, E. Thomas Sullivan and Richard W. Painter examine the evolving state of presidential power in the United States, specifically facilitating discussion and debate concerning the power, responsibility, and accountability of U.S. Presidents. How is power acquired? How is it used or misused? How are the President's powers checked and how are they held accountable to and by the people? Rather than promote a single theory of presidential power, Sullivan and Painter answer these questions with a wide range of arguments for and against power in a broad number of circumstances and Supreme Court holdings. Grounded in the intersection of law, politics, and history, this book engages readers across disciplines, helping them understand the remarkable transformation of the United States presidency. Objective and timely, The U.S. Presidency makes a case for a democratic model of self-government centered on accountability and the rule of law.